Thursday, June 9, 2016

Why I am NOT Jumping on the Hillary Clinton Bandwagon

The logic of "The Lesser of Two Evils" has brought us, under the last two Democratic Presidents:

1. A "welfare reform" policy that pushed huge numbers of indigent people into the low wage labor market and ended up vastly reducing worker bargaining power.

2. Harsh incarceration policies, federal as well as local, that have cemented the US status as the worlds largest jailer.

3. De-regulation of financial products, leading to a vast expansion of power of major banks, the rise of hedge funds, and the increased concentration of wealth in a small number of hands

4. The privatization of public education in the US and the selection of charter schools and national testing as the major responses to education inequities.

5. The negotiation of trade deals that led to the massive exportation of industrial jobs. and the further devastation of once vital regions of our industrial economy

The US is now a more unequal nation in terms of distribution of wealth and income than it has been at any time since 1929. And two out of our last three presidents have been Democrats.

So forgive me if I don't jump on the Hillary Clinton bandwagon. I will fight the racism and xenophobia emanating from the Trump campaign with every ounce of energy at my disposal, but not to the point of endorsing an election strategy which has done little to prevent the transformation of the US into an Oligarchy.